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It's About TIME! FAMILY VALUES at WORK: It’s About TIME! Why We Need Minimum Standards To Ensure A Family-Friendly Workplace You shouldn’t have to risk your job to take care of your family, and you shouldn’t have to put your family at risk just to do your job. Unfortunately, millions of Americans face these terrible predicaments every day. Published by the MultiState Working Families Consortium in conjunction with: ACORN | AFL-CIO | A Better Balance Center for Law and Social Policy | Moms Rising The National Partnership for Women and Families 9to5, National Association of Working Women National Employment Law Project Service Employees International Union | Take Care Net NO TIME to CARE: A [Mom and] Pop Quiz on Family-Friendly Workplaces A Growing Tension Between Leave for New Babies or Family An Outlier Nation Work and Family Health Crises Of 177 countries worldwide, Percent of married U.S. mothers Percentage of private sector work- names of the four that with children under six in 1950 ers nationwide who are not cov- do not guarantee paid leave who were working or looking for ered by the Family and Medical and/or a substantial birth payment work: 12 Leave Act: 53 for parents to care for their new- born babies: Liberia, Papua Percentage of married U.S. Estimated number of workers who New Guinea, Swaziland, mothers with children under six were eligible for FMLA and need- United States who were working or looking for ed family or medical leave in work in 2000: 63 1999-2000 but did not take leave Of the nation’s included in the because they couldn’t afford to go World Economic Forum’s list of Share of U.S. workers under age unpaid: 2.7 million 20 most competitive economies, 60 who will have responsibilities to number that do not guarantee care for an elderly relative in the paid sick days to all workers: 1 next 10 years: nearly two- Few Protections for Workers (United States) thirds and Their Families Of those 20 most competitive Number of states in the United economies, number that guaran- Lack of Paid Sick Days States where workers are guaran- tee 31 or more days of paid sick teed a minimum number of Number of private sector workers time per year: 18 paid sick days: 0 in the United States who are not entitled to paid sick days: Number of states where it is illegal Affordable Family-Friendly 55 million (48 percent) for employers to fire a worker who Policy Options refuses to work “mandatory Number of private sector workers overtime”: 0 Estimated cost to employers of a who are not entitled to paid sick national law guaranteeing seven days to care for an ill child or Number of states in the United paid sick days to all full-time family member: 86 million States where it is illegal to employees working for employers (70 percent) discriminate against workers due with 15 or more workers: $20.2 to family responsibilities like being Percentage of low-income workers billion a parent or caring for an elderly who are not entitled to paid sick relative: 1 (Alaska) plus the Estimated benefit to employers days to care for a sick child: 89 District of Columbia from the same national paid sick days law by reducing job turnover, spread of illnesses, and lost pro- ductivity when workers come to work sick: $28.4 billion For information on the sources cited in the [Mom and] Pop Quiz, Average amount deducted per visit the Family Values at Work page at www.9to5.org/familyvaluesatwork. month from the pay of California workers to support that state’s first-in-the-nation paid family and medical leave program: $2.25 Amount paid by California employ- ers to fund the paid family and medical leave program: $0 FAMILY VALUES at WORK: It’s About TIME! Why We Need Minimum Standards To Ensure A Family-Friendly Workplace TABLE OF CONTENTS Prologue: If We Care About Family Values, It’s Time to Value Families 2 Part One: Where Family Values Fear to Tread 5 … When You’re Caring for a Sick Child 5 … When You’re Caring for an Elderly Parent or an Ill or Disabled Family Member 7 … When You’re Coping with Your Own Health Problem 9 … When You’re Having a Baby 11 ... When Babies Arrive...Even More Problems 12 … When You’re Trying to Support Your Child’s School Success 14 Part Two: A Flexible, Family-Friendly Workplace: The Case for Government Action 17 Reason #1: Not Many Families These Days Have a Wife at Home Full-Time 17 Reason #2: The Lack of Time to Care Harms Families 19 Reason #3: It’s the Government’s Job 20 Reason #4: Flexibility Works for Families 22 Reason #5: Flexibility Also Pays Off for Employers and Taxpayers 24 Reason #6: Voters Want Action 27 Part Three: A Policy Agenda to Promote Flexible, Family-Friendly Workplaces 31 Defining a Minimum Standard for Workplace Flexibility — A Modest Proposal 31 Igniting the Engine of Reform 35 Conclusion: Why Not Protect and Support Our Nation’s Families? 37 Part Four: Resources for Action 38 About this Report inside back cover A Note on Sources: In order to maximize the readability of this publication, annotations and source notes have not been included. However, a complete list of source citations is available online at www.9to5.org/familyvaluesatwork. Prologue If We Care About Family Values, It’s Time to Value Families. We begin with a simple proposition: You shouldn’t have to risk your job to take care of your family, and you shouldn’t have to put your family at risk just to do your job. And a stark reality: Millions of Americans face these terrible predicaments every day. ■ On August 10, 2005, the only day she could register her two kids for school for the upcoming academic year and sign them up for an after-school program, Vickie Underwood left work at the end of her regular 8-hour shift at an Atlanta-area printing plant, politely refusing her boss’ demand that she remain for three hours of “mandatory overtime.” Despite 20 years of service for the company, including dozens of previous mandatory overtime shifts, she was fired. ■ When Monalisa Bush’s 7-year-old son, Juliano, had a severe asthma attack in the fall of 2005, she left her desk at a Milwaukee- area cable company to rush him to the hospital. Following doctor’s orders, Bush stayed home two additional days to make sure the boy’s airways remained clear and he didn’t suffer an adverse reaction to his medications. When she returned to work, Bush, who had been on the job for eight months and wasn’t yet cov- ered by family and medical leave laws, was suspended without pay for poor attendance. Vickie Underwood at home with her family. ■ By the time she became pregnant with her first child at age 34, Julia Panley- Pagetti was a successful New York City communications executive earning a nearly six-figure salary. After giving birth to a baby daughter, Panley-Pagetti went out on maternity leave. But within days her bosses were bombarding her with calls, emails, and work-related requests. Then, even before her maternity leave expired, Panley-Pagetti was laid off. Without her salary, the family lost their home and had to move into her grandfather’s apartment. ■ In May 2006, Alan Gales’ father suffered a heart attack. Gales rushed to the hospital, missing a scheduled shift at the Rock Tenn cardboard box factory in Conway, Arkansas. When he returned to work for his next shift, Gales was written up with an “occurrence” for bad work attendance. Nine months earlier, Gales had received another occurrence after getting into a serious car wreck on the way to work. Gales suffered a concussion in Monalisa Bush with son, Juliano. 2 the crash, and recalls sitting in the ambulance, with a big knot on the side of his head, calling in to tell his supervisor he wouldn’t be in that night. Gales didn’t get a lot of sympathy: “I was told if I miss any more work, I could be fired,” he says. ■ When Monique Evans called her supervisor at a Wendy’s fast food franchise in Portland, Maine, to explain that her two-year-old had the flu, so she couldn’t come to work that day, the supervisor told her to come in anyway. When Evans refused, the supervisor cut her hours from 40 per week to 15 and demoted her to mopping floors and cleaning toilets. More than a month passed before a regional manager intervened and restored Evans back to her normal shifts. Why are these workers — and countless more like them — forced to make wrenching, impossible choices between their jobs and their families? One reason is that our nation’s labor laws, written 70 years ago when most families had a working father and a stay-at-home mom, have never been augmented by complementary laws to address the changing needs of workers and their families. Monique Evans The second is that, in the absence of government rules, too few employers have adapted to the changing needs of workers. Half of all workers today, and three-fourths of low-income workers, don’t receive a single paid sick day. Few receive any paid leave to care for an elderly parent or newborn child. Many aren’t even permitted unpaid leave to deal with a family health emergency or bond with a newborn child. Millions can’t attend a parent-teacher conference without losing pay or risking their jobs.
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